Laguna 69

Now that we were somewhat acclimatised to the altitude, we wanted to do one more hike in the national park, the famous, Laguna 69. This is a moderately challenging, but relatively short hike that would take us from the campsite at 3800m to a glacier lake at 4600m. As this is quite a popular thing to do, we wanted to get in there before the weekend and so we stocked up on supplies in Caraz, before heading straight there. As part of trying to be better with money, we had resolved that we would buy as much as possible in the local markets. It’s generally far cheaper to buy vegetables and so on here, but sometimes it’s easy to get sucked into the convenience of the supermarkets and pay far more, for often less quality produce. 

We walked around the market, only to be pleasantly surprised by the amount, variety and cost of everything there. I remember when we bought avocados on the coast at around £1.30 each, here they cost us 10p. Everything was much better. The people were friendly and we didn’t get the impression they saw us as walking money, which was nice. By the time we had finished, we had stocked up on a huge bag of veggies and some local cheese for around a tenner.

Due to our oil leak, we also made sure we had enough oil with us as well, before we finally headed out to our next spot. Google took us on an interesting route as always. With complete disregard for altitude or road condition, it decided that there was a quicker way than the designated main road and sent us on a very steep, very narrow and very lumpy route up the side of the mountain as we left Caraz. This is normally all fun and games until you meet the local bus coming the other way, fortunately for us we managed to avoid this scenario and while I was a little more stressed that I needed to be, we emerged back out onto the main road without incident. No doubt I had a few more grey hairs, but at least the camper was in one piece and we could continue on the far wider and less steep main road. 

While the entrance fee for Laguna Paron is subsidised by the locals, this entrance fee would be the full price at £12 for three days per person. The good thing was, camping was included. What we weren’t sure about was whether the hike we wanted to do was actually included. The board outside seemed to list this as an additional cost, but the guy in the ticket office didn’t seem bothered. We had decided that we would be starting it early anyway, as we wanted to beat the crowds, and possibly the ticket office too. For now, we paid our entrance and drove in towards the free campsite beside the most stunning scenery. We both agree; it was like Scotland, on steroids. 

The free camping didn’t have much in the way of facilities, but looked out down the valley and over the lake beyond. It seemed that cars were supposed to park in bays near the road, marked out with painted white rocks. We didn’t fancy that though, so we went rogue, parking in the middle of the field. We figured they’d tell us if we needed to move. In the meantime, we made some food to take with us the following day and tried our first coca leaf tea which would supposedly help with my nagging headache. 

Although we had spent the last two nights higher, we both were feeling rather sleep deprived and we decided that rather than risk another bad night we would just take some sleeping pills. We wanted to be out of the campsite by around 7am the following morning in an attempt to be the first ones at the lake. 

Despite having had a rather good drugged up night, I was still not impressed to be up at 6am the following morning and would have stayed like Aimee was.

At least this time, we’d actually gotten some sleep though. There was no excuse. We made our tea ‘to-go’ and set off. The campsite is a one kilometre hike from the official start of the walk and so it was easier to add on the extra walk than to pack up and move. According to some previous wild campers, if you parked up there too close anyway, the tour buses would let your tyres down. And so, at 7.15am, we set off. The first section of the walk is level and follows the icy blue waters of the river as it winds its way down the valley through fields of woolly alpacas and bright purple lupins. 

I was happy to see that as we arrived at the true start, over a roaring river and small wooden bridge, that the ticket booth was closed. There would be no debate as to whether we had paid the right amount or not. We crossed over, and begun the official hike. There was a small group of tent campers who obviously had similar plans of starting early, but they were still collecting their things as we passed. It seemed that we were the first people to start that morning, and we continued on up a gentle slope into the valley. 

We had initially started in the shade, and slowly as the elevation increased, we were glad of it. As we reached the end of the valley the track started on a steeper upwards ascent of the mountain in front of us. As we reached the top of this section, we turned to the left and continued onwards and upwards. The walk was almost split into two sections. As we reached another smaller laguna, this marked about the halfway point. It was also a chance for a breather as the path levelled out and crossed the valley in front. 

The final kilometre would be the ascent on the other side and this was supposed to be the toughest part. Not only was it the steepest, but you would already be tired from the previous ascent as well as having gained some altitude and therefore lost some more oxygen. Lee pushed on ahead, determined to reach the lake within the exact three hours. I tried to keep up, but couldn’t. I felt like I couldn’t breathe up here and hat to take a minute to get myself back together again before finishing the last few hundred metres. Despite it being tough at the end, the breath taking view made it all worth it. 

For second, we thought we were the first people, but we had been beaten to it by a few others. Still, we didn’t mind sharing with just a few as we knew that soon the crowds we had seen coming up behind us would be here too. Before we had to share with the masses, we sent up Steve for some even better views. 

Then it was time to eat our packed lunch and watch as slowly the place filled up with other out of breath people. Within half an hour there were nearly twenty people there, some even swimming in the freezing water. We decided we had enjoyed our moment, and started the far easier descent, this time it was a little easier to enjoy some of the views

After a couple of hours, back down at the bottom we reached the ticket booth and started the final section back to the campsite. Despite being tired and having sore feet, one couldn’t help but to stop and appreciate the amazing views. It was a spectacular place and we were enjoying it on the most beautiful day. 

Back at Ruby, we had a well deserved afternoon of relaxation. It seemed the park ranger had put all our stuff on the roof of our van, we assumed to stop a cow attack, and so we reclaimed the chairs and enjoyed the afternoon sun. We had toyed with the idea of leaving to Huaraz that afternoon, but as it was the weekend which is notoriously bad for free camping and we had already paid for the night here we decided to make the most of it. Perhaps I would have changed my mind if I had known about the cows. They had clearly taken a liking to our things, and while most things were packed they decided to half eat through our doormat and then spend the rest of the night gently rubbing themselves on the side of Ruby and drooling down her. It was a little off putting to say the least and we awoke in the morning to slobbery lines all around the camper. Still, she was filthy anyway after all these dirt roads so with a car wash imminent, we set off to meet up with our friends Kartik and Sim in the town of Huaraz itself.